Steppe 3

Since my last post, things have been starting to acquire a routine at last. That means my exoticism as a blond, blue-eyed English speaking teacher has definitely waned, so I've been challenged a lot more by loud and crazy class rooms-from the 2nd graders to the 11th graders. Unfortunately, foreign teachers normally give them a lot of leeway, plus, they can't really fail the classes since the schools are all in competition, and thus never really give a student below a B. So it's hard to earn their respect and attention. As I am now in the middle of my 3rd week of teaching, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, plus I'm actually able to prepare for classes. I am trying to put a lot into these classes, despite the majority of the students almost certainly won't. Otherwise, laziness and boredom have never been something I do well with... Especially on the other side of the world from Jose and Home! Since it is winter, travel on the weekend is difficult because the weather and transportation aren't really reliable. But I am finding plenty to do, and am very excited about the fact I actually have a little time to read for the first time since my early teens.

Haha, I just had to correct myself because I accidentally typed "exciting" instead of "excited" which is a mistake many Mongolians make when speaking English. Jack came by one night after a few drinks with his friends, and he kept saying "I am very exciting! I am very exciting!" LOL I had to restrain myself from saying, "Yes, you are!"


Piano Students and Mongolian Time

I have acquired 2 piano students! One has been playing for 6 years and the other for 2. They are both in their early teens, and live in the same "district" as I do, but a taxi ride away. Their mother is a social studies teacher at the school where I teach, and she made contact with me through one of the German teachers, as she speaks German, but not English. This happened on one very busy afternoon last week, and the mother insisted I should come over to her apartment if I had a moment to see her piano and the girls and their music. As it turned out, I accidentally scheduled to meet her 30 minutes before the foreign teachers had scheduled to have class in the Mongolian language (we had scheduled and rescheduled said class SEVERAL times over the first 2 weeks, so it wasn't so terrible that I had forgotten.) So I crossed my fingers that she didn't live too far away (since I couldn't really communicate with her) and we set out for her apartment. Of course I became concerned when we got in the taxi, but figured it couldn't take too long... Well, it wouldn't have taken long, if the taxi hadn't taken a round about way through several side streets to drop off the other random people that were crammed in the backseat, AND then stopped for gas... finally we arrived at the apartment building, and climbed to the top apartment. We removed our shoes and I was carefully prevented from putting my bags on the floor, since that is NEVER done here! I had the girls play for me (we'd already met they are in my classes) and we talked about times and prices for lessons. We have been instructed to charge between 3,000-5,000 T for private lessons, so I have set 4,000 T for an hour long lesson. That converts to less than $4 per hour, where I get $24 per hour in the US. Yet this is expensive here, and I'm grateful to have the extra salary.

So I will have the first piano lesson tomorrow! I have permission to hold it at the school if I need to, but I think I will try to have it at the apartment as much as possible since the piano there will I think turn out to be better.

Must off to class! More later...